TheLibrary

'A little easy and modern for the times' : a documentary of productions of Ben Jonson's plays by major professional theatre companies in England, 1977-2000

Penlington, Amanda Jane
(2001)
'A little easy and modern for the times' : a documentary of productions of Ben Jonson's plays by major professional theatre companies in England, 1977-2000.
PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Abstract

This thesis is a collation and discussion of productions of Ben Jonson's plays inEngland between 1977 and 2000. It focuses on mainstream theatre productions.Therefore, amateur and Fringe productions, adaptations and productions bysmall-scale theatre companies are not included. It contains previously unreleasedmaterial of interviews with theatre practitioners who have been instrumental instaging the productions covered.Whilst scholarship has concentrated on recent productions ofShakespeares, tudies in Jonsonianp erformanceh ave been neglected.W ith therecent resurgence in popularity of Jonson's texts in the English theatre repertoire,it is now pertinent to assessth e methodsu sed to staget he work of thisplaywright. This thesis focuses only on the staging of texts presented between thetwo dates; this does not cover all of Jonson's texts. Contained in two volumes,Part One raises issues of performance, whilst in Part Two productions areconsidered within chapters on each play. An Afterword (in Volume One)considers the future of production and the action needed to be taken for futureprogression in performance and performance studies. The Appendix (in VolumeOne) contains detailed venue information. The thesis is intended as adocumented record of productions, in order to stimulate future research intoJonsonian performance methods. By examining recent productions the failuresand successeso f the contemporaryt heatre's approacht o Jonsonh ave been noted.This will contribute to an understanding of how Jonson's texts continue to workon stage. The title of this thesis comes from Bartholomew Fair, a play thataddressesth e need to assimilatet he presentationo f theatre within contemporaryconcerns.